7 Responses

Interesting discussion about long-term vs. short-term goals. I remember what it was like to be a first time client who doesn’t know anything. I think your job as a trainer almost has to be a bait and switch. New client comes in wanting to look better, but somewhere along the way they start caring about having functional strength and joints that don’t hurt. Pretty soon they’re deadlifting and reading Boyle’s books and Tony’s blog. Oh wait, why did they join a gym again? That reunion they wanted to look good at was just a catalyst that opened up a whole world to them.

Oh, and those people who try to put you down for your chicken breast at the restaurant are jealous, plain and simple. It’s not your fault they planned to go out the night you planned on eating well.

This was a great episode to make us think if we are obsessed or goal focused. To be honest I am not sure. Everyone has such different reasons- I was a fat kid growing up, and now I never want to be that way. But today I had some of my daughters ice cream when she offered it to me 🙂

I’m the kinda guy you described… I log everything I eat at dailyburn.com (best site ever imho) and I’m alway right in my goals with a nice clean diet…

however… There is that random day where I happen to take a bite of half the sugar cookie my kids left laying around… 1 bite turns into 1 cookie, turns into 2 turns into, ah who cares? This day is shot anyway… Eat it all…

I wouldn’t call my behavior ‘obsessive’ by the good doctors defination, I enjoy logging my food, it’s like a puzzle… ‘what can I add to this meal so it includes some healthy fats?’

so, while I’m sure some people can… I’m not the kinda guy who can have that 1 bag of M&Ms. I’m the all or nothing…

Hey Guys, great dicussion bringing up a lot of key issues and reality checks for someone trying to find that balance when trying to live a healthy lifestyle. There is a line between healthy choices and obsession, are you eating/training the way you are because you enjoy it and enjoy feeling good? Go for it but don’t forget to live life!
Regarding the discussion of considering both long and short term goals, achieving short term goals provides some more motivation to continue towards long term goals but those short term goals for special events tend to cause someone to fall off the wagon after the goal is achieved, to quote Jon “putting a time constraint on health.” Those most successful have the attitude of the long term goal for living a healthy lifestyle. In this case people can take a ‘vacation’ from training/diet but those reaching towards fitting in an outfit for a certain day can not as they have generally not achieved the healthy lifestyle mindset. Overall, a great discussion! Thanks!

While training for a figure show, I found myself getting OVERLY obsessed with my diet that I would take my meals with me when I would go ‘out’ to eat with friends and family. I didn’t want to miss out.
Talk about obsessive.
I got to the point where I got overwhelmed about sodium content, how restaurants prepared the food I was ordering that I decided to try to still ‘fit in’ and enjoy the company, and prepare my food myself. I asked the waitstaff to heat up my meals…they knew a big tip was coming their way so they went for it.
It worked for my physique…but the mental state–not so much. I became more frusterated with people asking me about diet/nutrition/workouts. All I was talking about was work both in and out of work. I wasn’t balancing.

Great podcast this week.
Makes me realize I’m not alone in sometimes feeling guilty about my diet, realizing how to balance, and its okay to have an off day and not feel bad about it!